Before it was officially greeted by fans as the most hated team in basketball, Scott Raab talked with Dwyane Wade and discovered the face of the franchise wasn't so bad after all

Good guy, D-Wade. When we sat down in September, he was excited, genuinely excited to land in Esquire's pages, easy to talk to. Yeah, I told him LeBron James had broke my heart and Cleveland's, and how stupid I felt about feeling so deeply about that.

"I understand," he said. "I'm a fan of the Bears. Not an easy thing — sometimes you just get angry at the guys. I understand that. Whatever decision is going to be made, it's going to be something that no one has seen before, so they're not going to like it. No one likes change. But years down the line, you could look back and say, What those guys did, or what that guy did — that was the start of something, and it was great that they had the opportunity to do that."

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Fine. But cry for Cleveland. Just a little tear. For Cleveland.

He laughed. "We've had some tough times here," he said, and it's true: Miami lost a lot of games while Pat Riley cleared enough money off the payroll to go out and sign both James and Bosh to max contracts. But Wade, who feinted toward free agency, never wanted to be anywhere but Miami.

"I said that from the beginning. I didn't want to be forced to leave. I'm seven years into the league — I just signed a six-year deal. If I'm blessed, I can play eight more years. That window is closing.

"I want to be a businessman. I want to be a very successful one. This summer I spent a lot of time with Magic Johnson. Our mothers are best friends — they always wanted us to get together. We finally got together, and I've spent a lot of time trying to pick his brain about how he turned his basketball thing into the empire that he has now. He's a mentor to me."

Magic is one mentor, Bill Russell another.

"I've had a relationship with Mr. Russell since I was in college. He's a great man."

A great American.

"The funny thing is, last summer we were golfing together, me, him and Alonzo [Mourning]. I don't know how to golf, but it's an unbelievable opportunity to go out and golf with one of the greats. And he's out there making fun of my swing — I can't hit the ball — and I'm getting frustrated because I'm a competitor. So Alonzo pulled me aside and said, 'Man, you're getting the chance to golf with Bill Russell. How many people can say they've done that?' And I looked at him and said, 'You know what? You're right.'"

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